Republicans Have Become the Largest Supporters of Terrorism in This Country

For anyone to deny that we have a gun problem in this country is ridiculous. Now, am I saying that guns are the only problem? No, of course not. But to claim that guns, especially the ease of access to them that we have in this county, aren’t part of the problem is to admit that you’re not living in any rational plane of reality.

Think of it this way: Do we have a bomb violence problem? What about an RPG violence problem? How about a missile violence problem? No? Well, why is that? Is it because criminals have no desire for these weapons? Is it because these are not effective means to inflict harm or death?

Oh, I know!

It’s because they’re highly regulated means of destruction that we’ve been extremely successful at keeping out of the hands of crazy people who would gladly use them to create massive amounts of chaos and inflict death.

The same can’t be said for guns. In fact, I literally live right next door to a Walmart. I could walk over there, purchase an AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle, and be back home within an hour.

That is absolutely insane. In Texas, it’s more difficult for me to buy liquor (which I can’t even do on a Sunday and it must be purchased at a liquor store) than it is for me to buy an assault rifle.

Just let that sink in for a moment.

What this gun-crazed environment has done is open up a whole new world for terrorism and terrorists. Why would ISIS really need to worry about finding a way to get terrorists within our borders when our laws make it much more sensible for them to just try to “radicalize” people who are already here? Sadly, that isn’t exactly difficult to do with the rise of social media. After all, if you’re an American citizen without any sort of criminal record, you can legally stockpile weapons and ammunition for years with the NRA and the Republican party backing you the entire time. Hell, you can be a suspected terrorist on our no-fly list and Republicans still support your right to buy weapons.

For terrorists to be successful, they don’t need to blow up buildings or kill thousands at one time. Our lax gun laws have created the perfect environment for them to potentially legally build an arsenal of weapons with relative ease. And in this country, because of our gun obsession, we’ve opened the door to a whole new world of terrorism. One based on random mass shootings as opposed to elaborate attacks.

I think the craziest part to all of this is that no matter how many mass shootings we have – even if every single future mass shooting is carried out by an Islamic radical – the NRA and the Republican party will never support any sort of sensible gun reform. In fact, I can guarantee you their response will be a call for more guns and more of the same policies that are making it easier for terrorists to get weapons.

That’s the mindset of these fools. No matter how many shootings we have, and no matter how many people die every year because of guns, their answer is always going to be that we need more guns and fewer regulations.

When you get right down to it, these radical pro-gun policies have done nothing but turn the Republican party into the largest supporter of terrorism we have in this country. These people are so irrational about guns that they would rather make it easier for terrorists to get them than dare to close one single loophole or expand background checks.

Allen Clifton is a native Texan who now lives in the Austin area. He has a degree in Political Science from Sam Houston State University. Allen is a co-founder of Forward Progressives and creator of the popular Right Off A Cliff column and Facebook page. Be sure to follow Allen on Twitter and Facebook, and subscribe to his channel on YouTube as well.